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We have all been instructed to practice social distancing and sit at home because of COVID-19. To flatten the curve we need to minimize social interaction to bare minimum. In other words, contact other people only out of necessity. When have you last visited a hospital? How much people do you think you saw there? As I remember, during my last visit to my local clinic I encountered at least a dozen people, three of whom were personnel. Add to that people in the queue, people in the elevator, people in the hall, etc.
Coronavirus changes everything – in very recent future people are going to have online consultations with their doctors. We have previously covered med tech and healthcare software solutions. We are now going to emphasize how contactless virtual medical services will solve the problem of overwhelming patient turnover in the times of pandemic and the future to come.
Electronic Health Record
EHR system is an already established norm in US and many other countries. Virtual healthcare and online medical assistance are based on universal access to your patient profile. Your electronic health record allows every medical service provider to access your condition 24/7 from anywhere.
Your EHR record is also tied to your local healthcare provider, your medical insurance broker, and even pharmacy stores of your choosing. Now, in time of global pandemic, one can only imagine what would’ve happened to out medical infrastructure without digital upgrade and many software updates it have received during the last decade.
Medical Apps
Medical apps serve the same purpose as all other on-demand service apps. Users can book appointments, chat with their doctor, request a prescription, deal with healthcare insurance, fill in their prescriptions, etc. This all done without visits and without papers, saving time and money. An initial consultation that does not require using special medical equipment for tests or doctor’s presence can and should be handled online.
Moreover, patients can receive test results in the app the same as they now so often do via email. Right now in Italy and the US healthcare infrastructure is under tremendous pressure from the COVID-19 pandemic. Doctors and patients alike are in dire need of every damn minute they have. Medical things save the day as it has already been forecasted to be the industry that attracts the most attention from the software development sector.
Medical Tech vs. Coronavirus
It is obvious why healthcare software is topical right now. If the next epidemic will come, if there will be more waves of coronavirus, radical optimization of the critically important medical services is going to pose a massive challenge to global pandemic. Internet, universal cloud access, and smartphones, are best friends, have already made quarantine so much more comfortable and efficient.
Now, like never before, much of routine medical bureaucracy and initial screenings can be done remotely. Modern smartphone have incredible cameras and fast connection. Even dentists can now make initial assessment beased on video coverage and/or photos of your teeth. How about that?
